Summer Viewing: Linklater Follows Up 'Jewels in the Wasteland' with Early 80s Film Recs

[Editor's note: Austin Film Society co-founder and filmmaker Richard Linklater recently curated "Jewels in the Wasteland," a series focusing on films of the early 1980s. Today, as a guest columnist for Slackerwood, he recommends other movies he was unable to include in the series.]

We're looking forward to continuing the "Jewels in the Wasteland" series at some point with films from 1984-1986! Below are various titles that would have fit nicely in this first section of 80s films. Before we get going again, we'll likely have some one-off screenings (hopefully Pixote and Baby It's You) that represent additional titles from the first part of the 80s, so keep an eye out for them.

In the meantime, please feel free to check out the below suggestions:

Last month's Atlantic City begs you to continue with both Louis Malle's My Dinner with Andre and Bill Forsyth's Local Hero with Burt Lancaster. If you love Local Hero like I think you will, please check out an earlier film of his, Gregory's Girl. I noticed Danny Boyle included a clip from it during his Olympic opening ceremonies.

A unique double feature from this time would be Werner Herzog's Fitzcarraldo and Les Blank's Burden of Dreams, the amazing "making of" that I once got the chance to tell Les Blank was "the Citizen Kane of documentaries." By that I meant the subject of his film (Herzog) seemed like a different guy every time I watched the film. And I guess it is one of the best documentaries ever made.

While many others struggled in the shifting Hollywood of the 80s, of course Woody Allen was immune to all that, cranking out one great film after another: Stardust Memories, A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy and Zelig are all top Woody Allen, although I noticed this kind of "it's not Annie Hall or Manhattan" thing had crept in and was to hang around for a long time.

While in France, also check out Godard's other early 80s offerings: Prenom: Carmen (pictured above) and Passion, as well as a couple of Truffaut's final films: The Last Metro and, for anyone who somehow thinks of Truffaut as "light" or "sentimental," The Woman Next Door.

Lindsay Anderson and Malcolm McDowell completed their seminal "Mick Travis Trilogy" with Britannia Hospital in 1982. If you haven't seen If ('69) and O Lucky Man! ('73) check them out first if you want, but don't miss Britannia Hospital!